TASK 7 - Progression from preliminary task to thriller

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you've learnt in the progression from it to the thriller?

Looking back at our prelim task, after having worked on our thriller for the past few months, enables us to see how much we have changed since the filming of our prelim. Firstly, he camerawork in our group improved greatly from our prelim to our thriller. In our thriller, we were able to focus the camera more precisely, making the shots appear clearer when we put it onto the computer to edit. For example, in this shot at the beginning of our prelim, it was quite out of focus, showing that we were less capable in our skills at the time of filming our prelim.

We also had a greater capability of different shots to do in our thriller, as we had learnt more since the filming of our thriller, therefore making it easier to edit due to a wide variety of shots having been filmed. For example, at the beginning of our thriller, we filmed a tracking shot.

 We were not able to do a shot like this in our perlim, however we did film some obsquere shots, which did not work out as well as we had hoped. For example, the shot below from our prelim is an exmple of a shot which we did not think properlly about, as you can see the top of the set and it is therefore obvious that it is not a real house.

We generally have learnt a great deal more since the filming of our prelim, which enabled us to engage in greater amounts of the filming, directing, editing etc of our thriller as we had a greater idea of what we were doing.
The mise en scene in our thriller was used to create a chilling and deserted type of atmosphere, in order to convery the idea that the man and the woman were running away or in a difficult and dangerous situation. This mise en scene was more realistic than the set which we used for our thriller, which was the set of a room with very pieces of furniure in it. The picture below is the set of our prelim.

 The set which we used for our thriller was therefore more realistic and believable.

The editing in our thriller was a lot more effective than the editing in our prelim. For example, in our prelim, we used a very minimal amount of shots, reusing the same camera angles and therefore creating the whole prelim task out of only about 4 different shots. However, in our thriller, we used a large variety of shots. We were also able to add a lot of after effects, such as blood and gun flashes into our thriller in editing.

We were not able to do this in our prelim task, as we have since learnt how to do it.
In our thriller, we used added in sound effects, suck as the background music and gunshots. These were very effective into making the thriller seem more realistic. However, in our prelim we werent able to add in sound effects like this, as we did not have this skill yet.

TASK 6 - Technologies used

We added annotations onto our film on youtube, describing the technologies which we used.

TASK 5 - How did we attract our target audience?

TASK 4 - Audience for thriller

 For our thriller, I thought that the appropriate audience age that would like to watch it would be aged 15-25. The 'tribe' that we wanted our audience to be in would be young adults. 

 

My perfect audience member would be a 18 year old young adult from a middle class family who is mature and educated enough to understand the storyline and keep up with it as it would be quite complex, and be mature enough to deal with some of the themes which feature in our thriller. They would enjoy the idea of having to keep up with the plot and having to work out some of it for themselves. The kind of TV which they would watch would be Revenge, True Blood and other similar shows. The kind of films which they would be interested in would be the Borne series, Salt, Hanna and other similar thrillers which are complex and have similar twists to those which would be included in our thriller. The kind of music which they would listen to would be alternative and chart music, such a Beyonce, Frank Ocean and Noah and the Whale. The age range that we are going for means that they would mostly be at university or just finishing their A levels. They would be studying subjects  such a psychology and sociology, and therefore would be interested people and how they deal/react to different situations. They would be likely to see the film in the cinema with a group of friends or if they were a university student and had less money then they would download it off the internet and watch it on their laptop.

For our secondary audience, which would be over 28’s, who are intelligent and switched on and want to solve problems. They would be have a job as a banker, or a teacher, and would be interested in a lot of things. They would have studied subjects such as history or psychology at university. They may have just finished university and starting a job or already have a job. They would be interested in mystery TV shows such as Broadchurch or Revenge. They would listen to chart music such as Ed Sheeran or Maroon 5.They would be most likely to see the film in the cinema, in the evening after work or on a date. They may be attracted to the romance between the woman and her victims in the film, or the males may be attracted to the violence and blood which features in the film.

TASK 3 - The institution that would make my film

The institution which we chose to make our thriller was Vertigo. Vertigo is an English production  and distribution company which specializes in producing lower budget films with actors that are lesser known than those in holywood films. The budget for films produced by British production companies such as vertigo are much lower than the average budgets of films produced by big, well know production companies. Vertigo produces films that are low budget, with TV stars and lesser known/unknown actors. The films made by Vertigo are mainly made to attract to a niche British audience, however, they hae produced films such as 'Street Dance 2' which was produced in order to 'crack' the American market. Although this film was not very sucesful, I feel that although our film is a first time film, it is the type of film that could be used by Vertigo to crack the American market. I think Vertigo productions would produce our film, as it has unknown actors, and we are first time film makers. Hollywood wouldn't produce my film because it would not make a profit and there would be no attraction towards it.

Other films that Vertigo films have made which are also thrillers are; The children, Monsters and Out Law.  They are also similar to my film in the way which they are jumpy and have a complicated plot. They would appeal to our target audience for the same reasons our thriller would.

I think that my film could be should in independant cinemas where small budget films are played as it would not attract a great enough audience in big multiplex cinemas. I also think that DVD sales of our film would create a profit for Vertigo films. The reason I think our film would only show in small Independant cinemas not the big multiplex ones in cities is because 9/10 of the films shown in multiplex cinemas are Usa productions.  Therefore the main profit would have to be made out of dvd sales. They would promote the film to dvd by selling it cheaply in supermarkets, or on websites such as amazon.
However, we could distribute this film with the help of independent or European distributors,  who would buy it off the british companies and distribute it in europe, this often recoups the costs. We could promote it on film 4 which would encourage people to buy the DVD or watch it when it is premiered on the television. The film could also be shown on British television networks such as Film 4 as premiers which would also make a profit by charging for adverts.

TASK 2 - Representation of different social groups in our thriller

Ethnicity
In our thriller, the main female character, Anna, is Russian. Russians are stereotypically shown as being 'in control' of many situation, and being invloved with crime. In this sense, our representation of Anna therefore agrees with the stereotypical way in which russians are throught of to be. They are normally shown as being a powerful group of people, and having control over other people. They are therefore represented as a threat to other groups. They are normally representated negativley in thrillers, however, in our thriller, Anna is shown as being a powerful and independant, but also we show a loving and affectionate side to her, disagreeing with the stereotypical negative image. For example, this is similar to the way in which the Russian woman is represented in Salt. She is represented as a independant and powerful woman, similar to the woman in our thriller. Similarly, as in our thriller Anna is supposed to be a Russian spy, this is similar to many how russians are portrayed in the news. For example, this is simialr to many storys that we hear about in the news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10564236) for example, there was recently an article in the news about 'Anna Chapman' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2124371/Russian-agent-Anna-Chapman-came-close-catching-Obama-official-honey-trap-U-S-spy-catcher-claims.html) who is a Russian spy. She is portrayed as being attractive and as 'seducing' her victims, just as we wanted the woman in our thriller to be seen as doing.

Gender
We aimed to find two characters who would both be found attractive by the target audience.
For the male character, we chose Paul. Paul would be found attractive by a female audience of around 18-30, and represents the typical 'attractive male' that is often shown in films. These male characters are often shown as being the in a position of authority, however, in our thriller this is not the case. As you find out by the end of our film, Paul has been set up by the female lead, and therefore this stereotypical important male character role is subverted. He is not portrayed as being powerfull, however he is seen as 'manly' in the way that he gets all the bags into the car and closes the container. This would also attract the female audience. He is also shown as being affectionate, which will futher attract the female audience. Another film which has a an attractive male character is Oceans Eleven, where Brad Pitt is seen as being the attractive male role. However, he differes slightly from the male in our thriller as he is a dangerous, unlike the male in our thriller, who we see a softer side too.
The female character in our thriller, Anna, has also been created in order to attract a male audience aged 18-30. Anna is represented as a powerfull, threatening woman, and therefore will attract to this audience. They will also want to watch the film due to the fact that Anna is using guns in the thriller, representing a woman being in control, rather than the man. She subverts the sterotypical ideology that men are normally the ones in charge, as she kills a man in the opening sequence. This may also attract to women, as they like the idea that the woman is in change instead of the man. Another thriller where we see an attractive woman being in charge is in Salt, where Angalina Jolie is the attractive female lead who in powerful and is a threat to others.

TASK 1 - How our product uses, develops or challenges conventions of real media productions.